Category Archives: A to Z Challenge 2016

One-stop summary of the twenty-six Molly’s Canopy posts in the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge — in which I was survivor number 1127 on my first time out! Thanks for joining me on the journey!

When the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge ended on April 30, I was happy to be counted among the survivors who completed the online marathon. Not bad for a first-time participant!

After generating twenty-six posts in just one month, I am craving a return to the more leisurely pace of weekly blogging as I continue to explore my ancestors’ lives and the research techniques used to find them.

Still to come is my Reflections post about my A to Z Challenge experience.

Ancestors From A to Z recap

But for this week — while I mentally recharge — here is a summary of my Ancestors From A to Z posts from April 2016 so you can check out any you may have missed. Comments are still open on the later posts, so please join in!

Letter Z: Last of twenty-six posts in the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Crossed the finish line today! Thanks for joining me on the journey!

The Swiss family Zinsk was a late arrival on my family tree . They showed up unexpectedly while I was investigating my paternal Charbonneau ancestors — and restored Switzerland as a long-forgotten source of my family’s roots.

Otter Lake Community Church (2015). My Swiss ancestors, the Zinsk family, attended services here when it was St. Trinitatis — a German Evangelical Lutheran parish in Hawkinsville, Oneida County, N.Y. The church was later moved to its present location on Route 28 in Otter Lake, where it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Photo by Tom/The Backroads Traveller

I was excited about our Swiss ancestry because my family was completely unaware of this heritage — or so I thought until I called my dad to tell him the breaking news.

“You know, I seem to remember hearing something about that,” Dad said thoughtfully, while I rolled my eyes and had a face-palm moment at the other end of the phone.

Yet in some ways it’s understandable how awareness of our Swiss heritage might have faded with each succeeding generation, given how challenging it was to find details about these elusive ancestors.

Seeking Ursula’s maiden name

My first hint of our paternal Swiss ancestry came from the 1900 U.S. Census for Forestport, Oneida County, N.Y. The record for my great, great grandfather Laurent Charles Charbonneau (spelled Charbono), who emigrated from Quebec to New York’s Adirondack foothills, listed his wife Ursula — born in Switzerland.

To learn more, we needed her maiden name — always a challenge. So Dad and I added this to the list of goals for our next pre-Internet family history road trip in August 1992.

We examined Laurent’s tombstone in Beechwood Cemetery, Forestport, Oneida County, N.Y., but the inscription was no help. All it said was “Ursula, His Wife.”

Then Dad and I found Laurent’s obituary in the Irwin Library and Institute in Boonville, Oneida County, N.Y. — but Ursula’s name did not appear in that, either, much to Dad’s chagrin.

A census breakthrough

Clearly, we needed more to go on. So back I went to the census, where the various spellings for Charbonneau (such as Charbono, Charbonno, Sharbono and Sherbenon) slowed my microfilm research.

But one evening — while browsing door-to-door through the 1870 U.S. Census for Boonville, Oneida County, N.Y. — I found Nicholas Zink, 84, and Barnard Zink, 40, (both from Switzerland), living in the home of Laurence Sharbono (from Canada) and his wife Angeline [Ursula](from Switzerland). This looked like the breakthrough we needed on Ursula’s maiden name!

There were more surname variants to come — from Zink to Sink to Zingg to Zinsk — which eventually led to records that clarified our Swiss ancestors’ family relationships and even identified the church where they worshipped, shown above.

Best of all: I found my ggg grandfather Nicholas’s naturalization papers, on which his signature confirmed Zinsk as the correct spelling of the surname — opening the door to future research into my family’s once-hidden Swiss heritage.

With this post, I have completed my first April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge on the theme Ancestors From A to Z. I made it! I’m thrilled! And I can’t wait to order my tee-shirt!

Coming soon – One-stop summary: Ancestors from A to Z . Please stop back for the victory lap.

Letter Y: Twenty-fifth of twenty-six posts in the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Wish me luck and please join me as I cross the finish line!

Yes! One more day and Molly’s Canopy will cross the finish line of the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge — to the roar of a virtual crowd and the sound of imaginary hands clapping (or tapping, as they finish up that last challenge post)!

Fireworks. Yes! Tomorrow I will make it to the end of my first April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge, crossing the finish line with the Zinsk family — my Swiss ancestors. By: Nigel Howe

Now that I am nearly there, I confess that I did not do the sort of pre-challenge preparation one should do before a marathon — even missing the Theme Reveal.

Because it was my first time blogging from A to Z — and I only decided at the last minute to accept the challenge — when the flag went down on April 1, I wondered if I would be just an April fool or make it all the way to the end.

So I sprinted through week one, getting a bit winded and sleep deprived. Then I settled down during week two for the long haul — writing and commenting and meeting new bloggers as I went.

And that turned out to be the best approach — even allowing me some spare time to weigh in at the weekly #azchat on Twitter to see how others were doing.

Tomorrow I will dash across the finish line — hand in hand with the Zinsk family (my Swiss ancestors) — to round out my theme of Ancestors From A to Z.

But today I just want to enjoy the feeling of knowing that I am almost there and Yes!I will finish.

Up next: Swiss family Zinsk. Please stop back for my challenge finale.